Vietnam

Alesha Huckleby 1

Professor Abbott

History 106

April 3rd, 2007

Vietnam

President Johnson was known as a liberal president who followed the Kennedy Policy with many promises and ideas for the future. The fight against communism, the domino theory, and a strong belief that America was a stable, rich, and wise enough country to support a weak country falling into the enveloping grasps of communism was a vision held also by most of the "Great Society." By entering the fight against communism, the liberals showed their enthusiasm and arrogance with overconfidence in the United States' abilities and wealth all the while underestimating the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces. The Vietnam War was considered an illegal war and spurred many anti-war movements and a draft as liberalism still flourished in the 1960s and the "credibility gap" widened. Johnson's idea of containment could have been the single most devastating mistake that lead to entering of the Vietnam War. As Republican President Nixon takes office after the assassination of Kennedy, Nixon spoke to the silent majority that was against the counterculture uprising and also believed in the opposite of the Truman Doctrine which promoted helping out other countries against communist leaders. This anti-Truman Doctrine idea was called DÐ"©tente.

President Johnson started an illegal war by way of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution as a U.S. destroyer the Maddox, scouted the Gulf of Tonkin. North Vietnamese forces tried to attack the Maddox, but the Maddox retaliated destroying two of the Vietnamese torpedo boats and damaging another. The Maddox and another U.S. destroyer C. Turner Joy, joined together and told the U.S. they were under attack by North Vietnamese patrol boats. Johnson asked Congress for the right to protect American forces from the Viet Cong without the declaration of war, and Congress approved.

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution allowed the U.S. to protect South Vietnam as wel as U.S. troops. After Operation Rolling Thunder was put into play for an air raid on North Vietnam, President Johnson realized that his reputation was on the line, he decided he would not accept defeat. The Vietnam "war" proved to be a difficult task to execute by an over-confident nation, and the war more prolonged than anyone expected. The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces strategized against the U.S. by hiding, attacking by night, and fleeing to stay alive long enough to cause the U.S. to want to withdraw from South Vietnam. South Vietnam could not stand alone, and the North was waiting for their chance to take over the make-shift democracy to expand communist ideals

The Gulf of Tonkin is undoubtedly mysterious. But the Congressional Resolution is significant less for its part in justifying the Vietnam affair Ð'-which could be done in other waysÐ'--then for the light it throws on a confused relationship of President and Congress in the areas of foreign policy and war. The clarification of that relationship must remain a matter of great constitutional importance. (Evans 540)

As Johnson believed he was doing the right thing by protecting South Vietnam and the U.S. destroyers, the conflict resulted in a confused society that perceived the Government and the President as credible as trustworthy leaders, but retailiating force against force was a war without declaration or approval by way of the Senate. The credibility gap was the untrusting feeling the society felt against President Johnson and Congress that lead to the beginning of the counter culture.

The counterculture was a movement stock full of activists promoting their ideals, whether they be feminist ideals and women's rights, gay rights, race rights, or simply anti-war ideals and anti-draft riots and demonstrations.

.To the opposite of the counterculture, the war represented an unbridled spirit of liberalism among American and ethnocentrisim that caused Americans to feel responsible for world affairs. Americans felt nothing could bring down the Great Society, and the liberals would stop at nothing to prevent the spread of communism and the Domino Theory.

Before Johnson's presidency, President Kennedy already started out his presidency in a bad situation. If he wanted to continue to prevent communism, South Vietnam's leader Ngo Dinh Diem was already being bombarded by attacks from Viet Cong forces as supplies were being secretly sent from Ho Chi Minh's regime down south. Kennedy tried to build up the gov't of Diem, by sending supplies and financial aid. He also sent American Advisors and Special Forces to teach the Vietnamese how to fight the Viet Cong. The US involvement was a major part in the cascading of the Vietnamese government's failure as Diem was assassinated the U.S. could do no more. Kennedy's commitment to Vietnam only made his successors such as Lyndon Johnson more aware of how difficult it would now be to withdraw forces from Vietnam.

The Viet Cong was launching bold and suicidal attack on the South on the first day of Tet. The Tet Offensive did have a decisive effect in turning the war around so far as the United States was concerned. Most observers agree that it